A couple of years ago our community shifted our thinking about children. We moved from exclusion to inclusion.A little background. We are a Presbyterian church which means that we hold to a covenantal view of the Bible. Which leads us to the conclusion that children are members of the community and are not to be excluded until some 'experience' happens so that they 'can' be baptised. However, we didn't include them in the worship gathering.
They were excluded.
But, now, that has changed. We include them in the worship gathering. We offer nursery care for the very young, but we encourage our parents to bring kids into the worship gathering as soon as possible.
Amy and I are discovering that as a result of our kids being in worship they are learning something that we weren't expecting.
They are learning to think.
Our kids have learned the ability to listen to a 30-40 minute lecture (because that's what most sermons are) and can distill it to its major idea. When there isn't one, they can tell you that too. The ramifications for this are significant. This means that at school they are able to listen to their teacher and focus the lesson to its most important objectives.
They are learning how to think and they are learning it as we gather for worship.
The worship gathering is not just a place to sing, pray, and give. It's a time for us to teach our children how to think.
I'd love to hear more about this as it develops--the pros and the cons as well as the complaints/support from the congregation. It's a model that I have loved in theory--for one thing when parents and kids are in separate places 5 days a week, it seems counter-intuitive to me to split them up again--but I haven't seen it done in practice, so I've wondered about it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for comment Laura. You're dead on! The congregation has been really supportive. Especially the folks who have children. It's interesting, the people who push back the hardest are those who remember 'back when'.
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